Section: European Voice (EU)

If I were Greek, I’d be feeling pretty pissed just about now. The very Germans who couldn’t bring themselves to spit at a Greek dying of thirst by the side of the road this summer are now flinging the doors open to an influx of migrants from outside Europe (even as Angela Merkel has had second thoughts about it). Frankly, I’d be...

Italy needs a reboot — appropriate enough in a country shaped like an item of footwear. Few countries can boast anything like the heritage the land that produced the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. But few, in Europe at least, are as uncertain about what the future holds. Italy is the soft underbelly of the European project, and perhaps the...

With the next round of national elections coming up Sunday, Greek voters are casting around for a new champion to defend them against European bankers following the left-wing Syriza coalition’s abrupt concessions last spring. But the Greeks have been without an effective champion for far longer than most people realize. Many critics trace...

CRICKET FOR REFUGEES: As European leaders struggle to deal with the refugee crisis, one British politician is hoping to help asylum-seekers camped out in Brussels by teaching them cricket. Dan Dalton is a former professional cricket player who is now an MEP from the West Midlands. He’s heading to the camps with fellow MEPs from the European...

LONDON — It’s late evening on May 8, 2020, and the telephone rings at No. 10 Downing Street. “For you, Jez: It’s the White House.” “Tell the switchboard to put him on hold, please: I’ve got Hamas on the line and we’ve got a really brilliant idea.” The operator does her practiced best: “Please tell the president the prime...

Is Donald Trump, Manhattan real estate mogul and reality television star, really fit to be commander in chief? That question was a focal point of Wednesday night’s Republican debate, in which Trump’s rivals aggressively questioned the wisdom of handing control over America’s nuclear arsenal to the bombastic businessman and...

Even as the EU mobilizes to fight Russian propaganda, European governments are fighting each other over the best way to go about it. A new effort by Brussels to monitor and respond to the perceived bias of Kremlin-controlled media such as Russia 24 or Sputnik has exposed familiar fissures on the Continent. As the Russia media task force known as...

Donald Trump can’t explain the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah. He has confused the Kurds with the Quds Force. And he’s said he gets military advice from television talk shows. But he did know enough to negotiate a killer deal for a new golf club and resort in Dubai. Trump’s Republican rivals are primed to pounce on the...

As the Ukraine crisis settles into what appears to be a long stalemate, perhaps it is time to consider the future of Russian recalcitrance to the West — and who and what may follow in the footsteps of the main author of this recalcitrance, Vladimir Putin. Russia plainly needed someone like Putin at this point in its history. But did it also need...

HELSINKI — There was a coup in Finland earlier this month. A media coup, that is. Prime Minister Juha Sipilä announced, on the eve of parliament’s new term, that he would open up one of his homes to Syrian refugees. Since Sipilä remains modest, quiet and a rather unknown quantity to many Finns, it was something of a surprise to see him...